Drink, Swear, Steal & Lie
by EmFallen
Summary: It was no surprise to all the regulars when Sango Higurashi came through the door, took off her coat, and walked to the bar to begin the night's work. But to Inuyasha, it was a whole different matter. The wayward twenty-something man was hypnotized.


Author's Note: I know that I am being the epitome of slow with the last chapter of The Prince and I, and Trapped, and apart from that I'm starting new fics. I'm probably signing quite a few death certificates doing so. On my other fics, I'm very open for ideas. I'm ready for anything. I had a basic outline, and then I got depressed with life, and... well... then I got lazy because I have a huge crush on my history teacher. . But I hope you have fun with this fic, because I'm going to have oodles of it and I'll get my fics updated as fast as I can. Promise.

Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha. Trust me, Sesshoumaru visits me of his own free will...

**Drink, Swear, Steal, and Lie**

I was twelve when daddy said to me, don't take to drinkin' boy, that road don't lead no where, and don't you ever let me hear you swear, don't you dare. He told me stealin' is a lazy man's way, somethin' for nothin' leaves you held to pay, so don't lie, then you could look the whole world in the eye... Honey I try. But since I met you darlin' I been breakin' every rule.

(-Michael Peterson)

Chapter One: I Drink, I Swear  
  
Everyone knew when she came in every night at eight, and everyone knew when she left later those nights at twelve. The hours in between were the sweetest of every male's life if they had the chance to be blessed with the beautiful waitress' service.  
Everything from her long ebony strands, always pulled back in a long pony-tail, to her dark violet eyes was absolutely beautiful, unmatched by very few women. Her slender body, walking gracefully to and from tables, always with a plate or such balanced on her peach colored hand.  
So it was no surprise to all the regulars when Sango Higurashi came through the door, took off her coat, and walked to the bar to begin the night's work. But to Inuyasha, it was a whole different matter. The wayward twenty-something man was hypnotized. Miroku and Kouga, his best drinking buddies as well as his best friends, laughed at his staring.  
  
"What's so funny? She's beautiful." Inuyasha retorted.  
  
Kouga took a sip of his beer. "Of course she's beautiful. She's a Higurashi."  
  
Inuyasha blinked and Miroku clarified, "Yeah, that's Kagome's older sister. She works the nightshift."  
  
"How come I never see her?" Inuyasha questioned.

"Because your eyes were always on your precious Kikyo." Kouga remarked.  
  
Kouga began muttering about ungrateful dogs when Inuyasha kicked his shin. "So? Kikyo was beautiful, too."   
  
"Was?" Miroku questioned, but didn't continue as Inuyasha glared daggers at him. "Never mind, then."  
  
The rest of the night, while Kouga and Miroku were talking about the other girls they knew and the latest football game, Inuyasha watched Sango. He noted everything she did, from when her hand came to brush the strands of her loose locks to her ear, to the way she smiled at conversations with regulars. His observations weren't unnoticed by Miroku, however, who called the object of his friend's obsession over.  
  
"Hey Sango!" Miroku yelled, cupping his hands around his mouth to be heard over the din of drinkers.  
  
Inuyasha's eyes widened. "What are you doing?!" He hissed.  
  
Kouga smirked in the background as Sango answered. "Unless you need a refill, Miroku, I'm not going anywhere near you."  
  
Miroku grinned. "I promise you won't file sexual harassment and a restraining order. I just need a new beer."  
  
The other guys laughed and Sango came, trying to hide her grin of amusement in vain and raising an eyebrow. "A beer is all, was it?"  
  
"True as can be. By the way, lovely Sango, my friend here has taken an obvious liking to you." Miroku added.  
  
Sango took a glance at the now annoyed and flustered Inuyasha, and then looked back to Miroku and Kouga.  
  
"Should he take a number and step in line, or does he have better chance than others?" Kouga asked, giving Sango a suggestive look.  
  
Sango just smiled and said, "Well, we'll just see if he comes tomorrow."  
  
Inuyasha blinked as she handed Miroku his beer, and went off to the register for their bill. What did she mean tomorrow?

(_An Hour Later)_"You guys going to stay a while?"

Miroku waved Kouga off, "Nah, I gotta get Mr. I-Love-My-Beer-Better-Than-You-Do home before his big brother sends out a search party."  
  
"Hey! I resent that... Sesshoumaru's just living off my rent." Inuyasha slurred stupidly.  
  
Kouga gave him a skeptical look. "How come you're always smarter when you're drunk?"  
  
Inuyasha looked at him through half-open eyes. "I am?"  
  
Miroku laughed and dragged him to his car. "We'll see you tomorrow for the game, Kouga."  
  
"Later guys!" Kouga said, waving to them.  
  
After dumping Inuyasha in the front seat, Miroku started his little purple car to drive them both home.  
  
"You sure you can hold your liquor? I've never seen you drink that much before." Miroku said, his violet eyes shifting from the road to his drunken friend and back again.  
  
"Yes." Inuyasha mumbled, "I won't puke in your car."  
  
"My car is the least of my worries. It's a piece of shit and we both know it." Miroku said sadly.  
  
Inuyasha gave a wry smile before tilting his head back and falling asleep, his dreams surrounding a beautiful waitress.

EF  
.

"Hello, anyone home?"  
  
Sango Higurashi put her keys down on the table beside the door and hung up her coat from the chilly winter weather. Apparently she was alone in her apartment for the night. Then she went to her answering machine and clicked the button to playback the day's messages.  
  
The first was from her sister Kagome. "Hey Sango, I'm not going to be home tonight. Naraku's family wants us to stay another day. I'll see you when I get home tomorrow, ok?"  
  
Sango grumbled and said, "I have no idea why you stay with him." Though she knew it was pointless and her sister wouldn't have listened had she been there to hear it in the first place.  
  
The next message was from Kouga. Surprise, surprise. "Sango, it is I, your favorite regular. Hey I was wondering if you wanted to go to a baseball game with me and Miroku. We have an extra ticket and I really don't want to invite my sister. Love ya, call me back."Sango smiled. It'd be really nice to get out and enjoy a baseball game with her favorite regulars. But what about Kagome? Fighting with herself she reasoned that Kagome was a big girl. She had more than enough experience taking care of herself. So with that thought in mind, Sango picked up the phone and dialed Kouga's number. Her weekend was officially booked.

EF

Inuyasha awoke to a ferocious pounding in his skull and the bright sun glaring through the windows of his apartment. Someone had not only lifted all the blinds of the windows he could see, but they had dumped him on the floor. Sitting up, Inuyasha wiped away a bit of drool and lazily made his way to the bathroom. He was halfway through taking a shower twenty minutes later when the phone rang. So now wet and slippery, he stumbled out of the shower.

He had not bothered pulling the blinds back down, and he had also not bothered with a towel, probably giving Mrs. Carrine, an ancient woman living in the next building, a heart attack with his nakedness. But Inuyasha didn't care; the phone was incessantly ringing and it was extremely loud, especially to his hanyou senses.

"What do you want?"

"Sure, be that way to the person who had to drive your drunk ass home last night." Inuyasha instantly recognized Miroku's indignant voice.

"I'd be a helluva lot nicer if you hadn't pulled up the blinds of every window and just shattered my ear drums with your goddamn phone call." Inuyasha groused.

Miroku laughed quietly on the other end. "Well what're you doing now?"

Inuyasha rubbed his head with his free hand. Why was Miroku so damn loud? "Right now? I am standing naked in my living room and waving hands-free at Mrs. Carrine in the building over."

"That is too much information for me." Miroku said at once. "Isn't Mrs. Carrine that woman who brings you stale cookies?"

"Yes. And no, it's not too much information. You're the one with the purple car."

"Fine, be that way. But don't forget that Kouga's using Hakkaku's van to pick us up in half an hour. So be ready." Miroku hung up without another word, leaving Inuyasha to wonder if Hakakku was gay as well.

Deciding that Jakostu had just affected everyone, he got back in the shower.

EF

"Do you think he's pissed?"

"What do you care?"

"I don't, I was just wondering if he was going to act like an ass for the rest of the day."

"He doesn't seem to be very good with attitude points, does he?"

"Must you two talk in such loud whispers?" Inuyasha interrupted, finally cracking with annoyance.

Sango covered a laugh with her hand, and both Nazuna and Ginta sniggered in the front seats. "Well sorry. Didn't know that hangover gave you brain damage." Kouga growled indignantly.

Inuyasha's ears flattened and he flipped Kouga the bird instead of answering. Miroku tried to peacefully interject, a sorry smile on his face directed at Sango. "Now, now children, we wouldn't want to frighten the lovely lady away, would we?"

But Ginta defused the situation. "Guys, we're here."

EF

The stadium was packed with families and baseball fans, as everyone well found out after trying in vain to walk around an unusually obese woman standing in the aisle. Finally Inuyasha and Kouga lost it and hip-checked her into the row of seats she stood next to, roughly making their way down the aisle to the row after hers. Sango plopped herself down between Inuyasha and Nazuna, feeling content that Miroku's girlfriend would be enough of a blockade for the pervert.

Sango looked behind her, trying to see the highest seats, but the sun's glare began to pierce her eyes painfully, so she turned back around now seeing spots.

"Yeah, I wouldn't do that if I were you." Inuyasha advised. He held out an ice cub to her. "Don't rub your eyes, that'll make it worse."

Sango accepted the ice cub, gently sliding it over her closed lids. "I was wondering what the field would look like to the people at the top."

"Take my word for it, it's like watching ants. Kouga, Miroku and me sat up there once for the hell of it and couldn't see anything."

"I hated that game, because our team lost, too." Miroku chimed in from Nazuna's other side.

"Would you sit down? You're about to spill coke all over my white shirt." Nazuna said with a hint of irritation. But she wasn't being condescending; a relationship with Miroku required a lot of patience that the poor college girl barely had.

EF

"Beer?"

Sango looked up to see the aforementioned offered beer, held out to her by Kouga. She grinned and took it, thanking him. Kouga pulled up an empty lawn chair beside her, sipping his own beer.

"You're awfully quiet tonight, Sango." He said after a while.

Sango kept watching the others in their heated argument about baseball history. "I know... Kagome's still off at Naraku's parent's house."

Kouga raised an eyebrow beside her. "I thought she was supposed to come back earlier today."

"She was, but Naraku's parents asked them to stay another day." Sango affirmed. "I have no idea what she sees in that bastard."

"Pretty strong feelings for someone you've only met when he comes to pick up Kagome."

Sango clenched her beer tightly in her hand. "Actually I have good reasons for it, and trust me, the feeling is mutual."

Kouga took another sip of his beer, waiting for her to continue. When she didn't, he said, "Well if you ever wanna talk about it, you know where to reach me. Everyone I know just wants you to be happy."

"I know..." Sango said. The baseball debate was coming to a close and Inuyasha was coming their way.

"Call me if you need anything, ok?" Kouga said as he stood up. Sango said, "I will," and he kissed her on the top of her head and went back to the guys.

Sango wanted to tell Kouga about Naraku; she liked talking to Kouga. It was easy and he never pushed her to talk about something she didn't want to. But she knew that it wasn't for her to decide who her sister dates even if she hated Naraku. Inuyasha sat down in Kouga's lawn chair beside her.

"Hey," he said.

"Hey," Sango repeated, and for lack of a conversation topic, said, "What was the baseball debate about?"

Inuyasha growled, irritated. "Miroku wanted to dredge up some old thing about one of the games we saw in college..."

"Did he win?" Sango asked.

He shook his head. "Miroku never wins. It's why he's got a purple car."

This received a laugh. "You have to tell me that story!"

EF

When the last of the food had been consumed and all the beers were gone, everyone decided it was time to pack up their tailgate party. Ginta was the only one in sore spirits; he'd been selected as their designated driver. Kouga, Inuyasha and Miroku sat in the back seat by choice of the girls, and Nazuna and Sango sat in the next row even though Miroku pleaded to have his girlfriend sit on his lap instead.

"I realize," Kouga said when they were fifteen minutes on the road, "that though we see a lot of baseball games, we don't have many tailgate parties."

"Parties at all if you wanted to get technical." Miroku said.

"If tomorrow weren't Sunday, we could've had a party." Inuyasha said.

Sango raised an eyebrow. "Why can't we?"

"Sundays are the guys' days to catch up on the stuff around the house that they should have been doing on Saturday." Nazuna informed her, having learned that through Miroku's habits.

"Ah. Well maybe next weekend. We all had fun today, right?" Sango asked.

The guys all nodded, except Ginta, who was still annoyed at having been chosen without his consent.

"Oh... I'm so stupid..." Inuyasha said so quietly that Sango barely heard him. He leaned over to whisper, "Do you want to go see a movie with me sometime?"

Kouga and Ginta, because of their demon senses, heard this anyway. "'Bout time..." Kouga muttered.

Sango nodded, a smile on her face. "How about next Friday at nine?" She whispered back.

"I'll pick you up then." Inuyasha said. Satisfied, he leaned back.

Miroku, still confused without demonic hearing, nudged Kouga. He mouthed, "What?"

Kouga leaned towards him. "Inuyasha just asked her out."

"Oh." Miroku said thoughtfully. "About damn time."

EmFallen

**Author's Note: There's the first chapter for you. I promise to work diligently on this story... as well as all my others, but like I said before, I'm open to ideas. Tell me what you think of this! **


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